


Birds of a Feather

by Doxi



Category: WildStar (Video Game)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-13 08:29:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 4,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16889118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doxi/pseuds/Doxi
Summary: A collection of short drabbles about my OC Sezar and his husband Lex, who belongs to Alice.





	1. Chapter 1

No one had taken the pod like couch by the windows that night. The bar at the base had been fairly empty, everyone too tired and too sore to stick around for long. But it had become habit for Sezar to make his way up there to give one last check on everyone, and bask in the quiet enjoyment of being included in their conversations. The few voices at the bar made a pleasant background murmur to the natural hum of the base, and Sezar found himself lulled comfortably into near sleep when a familiar voice hummed just above him.

“Hidin’ from everyone, Sez?” Lex drummed his fingers against the metal hull of the pod in a simple beat. 

Sezar managed a small, tired smile as he lifted his slender hands in a shrug. “Yes. Welcome to my secret lair. Tell no one of what you’ve seen here.”

Lex’s voice box vibrated out a half stifled laugh. He twisted his head to look over his shoulder before turning back to the pink haired ‘desh. “You uh, y’ got room for one more?”

“Be my guest.” Sezar gestured to the cushions beside him in a lazy beckon.

“Sweet.” Lex chirped, flopping down and stretching his long legs out in front of him before draping his arms across the back cushions that only consequently came close to wrapping around the doctor’s shoulders. “Been standin’ around all night, dunno why they don’t got stools over there or somethin’.”

Sezar shifted a bit, letting his weight rest companionably against the other man. “Probably so we’ll go home.”

“Maybe.” Lex mused, eyes darting briefly towards Sezar then back back to the expanse of window in front of them. “Guess I could just sit on the bar like Grumps does. Feel like people’d get mad at me though, ya know?”

“Mm.” Sezar let his optics slip shut, just for a bit. He was only vaguely aware of Lex’s arm slipping slowly from the cushions to curl around his shoulders. Even less so of the other mordesh’s voice dipping to a soft, humming tone.

“Am I borin’ you that bad Sez?”

“Never.”

It was a small consolation the doctor had closed his eyes, because for once Lex didn’t feel the need to try and control his Vitalus’ natural inclination to brighten at moments like this. Instead he tipped his own head to Sezar’s letting their temples rest gently against the other. 

“Y’ want me to take y’ home?”

“Not yet.” Sezar murmured. “This’s nice.”

Lex ‘smiled’, eyes narrowing a fraction at the corners for a moment before slipping shut. Just for a bit.


	2. Chapter 2

“I can’t believe that you would do this to me!” Sezar hissed from behind the wall that was providing him shelter. He was cornered on one side by the others, and now from the one person he thought he could trust.

“No hard feelin’s.” Lex replied from the opposite side, ducking back as the shouts from the others got just a bit too close. “Y’ could give up now. Make it easy.”

Sezar scoffed. “Not a chance.”  
Lex chuckled. “Y'know you’re cute when you’re acting all badass?”

“Shut up.”

“M'serious.”

“No I mean, actually shut up. Varyt’s over there, I can take him out from here.”

Suddenly Lex was leaning around the wall, eyes wide and searching. “Wait for re-” He froze as the muzzle of a firearm pressed to the center of his chest. “S-Sezar?”

“All’s fair, [Troublemaker].” He pulled the trigger.

The laser targeting vest chimed it’s depressing little ‘YOU LOST’ chime.

“That’s cheating!” Lex shouted, turning his laser gun on the doctor and pulling the trigger only to have it make a series of disappointing error sounds.

“You can’t keep firing Blue Team you’re out!” The event coordinator shouted from up on their observation wall.

 

“And -you- said;” Sezar continued to nudge the laser gun into Lex’s chest. “You wouldn’t come after me.”

“Can I help it the rest of your team dropped like flies? No.” Lex scoffed, shoving Sezar’s gun away and pointing his at him again one last time. “Y’ still cheated.”

“Subterfuge.” Sezar sniffed. 

“Can’t believe you’d do this to -me-.” Lex pouted. 

Sezar bumped his shoulder into Lex’s, moving past the sharpshooter back into the fray. “When I win this for my team, I’ll make it up-”

Sezar’s targeting vest lit up, letting out the same infuriating 'YOU LOST’ noise.

 

“Hi Lex! Hi Sezar!” Linny quipped, dashing by the two Mordesh in a purple blur. “I think I just won!”

“Team Green is out! Red Team wins!” The coordinator announced.

“Sorry what was that about winning?” Lex 'grinned’, leaning into the blushing doctor’s personal space.

“The aurin are hard to see 'cuz they’re small.” He mumbled.

“Mmm-hm.”


	3. Chapter 3

Physical intimacy was always a strange thing for Sezar. It often felt too much, public displays were even worse. Hugs were suffocating, kisses were absolutely out of the question, even looking at the person he felt for seemed like they were pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable for two people to share in a public space. 

Then there was Lex. Lex, who was perfectly capable of touching him in front of others. Who could share companionable space with whomever he wanted. Lex who was there, present, and didn’t care about the stuffy social obligations of the upper class Mordesh and made sure people knew it.

 

Sezar didn’t understand it, but he longed to. So in quiet moments of daring he would sneak his hand out, press the tips of his fingers into an awaiting palm. Slide them slowly until they locked in the spaces between a different set of fingers. He could quietly revel in the alien sensation of comfort the gesture gave him.

 

He’d forced himself inward for so long. Emotions had to be controlled. Wants put so far on the back burner that they were removed almost entirely. He was quiet. Professional. Just like he’d been raised, just like he’d been trying to maintain in an effort to feel like he hadn’t completely lost everything that gave him a sense of identity. 

Now there was this. Fingers laced in his. A smile turned his way. A gentle weight pressed against his side. A hand clutching onto his. All these new, tiny unspoken gestures that allowed so much to be said in such a new way. 

He wondered if the idle stroking of his thumb over Lex’s properly communicated how grateful he was for that.


	4. Chapter 4

Sezar had supposed he should have expected this. After all, Lex had mentioned it briefly, in passing really, but the pink haired Mordesh did not expect it to be…quite this bad.

He’d been laying there for some time trying to figure out how this could be salvaged without sacrifice on either of their parts when Lex tossed in his sleep and his hand smacked into Sezar’s face…a third time.

 

That was the last straw. Sezar sat up, optics adjusting to the dim light of his bedroom to peer down at the other man’s sprawled form. It really was a pity… Sezar couldn’t be sure if all the fitful tossing and turning was related to his previous sleep issues, the unfamiliarity of a new bed, or if this was just the sort of person Lex was. But now he was faced with the realization either he was going to have to move to the couch if he wanted to get a full night’s sleep, or Lex would.

Lex shifted again, rolling onto his side to face Sezar and just coincidentally kneeing him in the shin. 

Somewhere between doubling over and biting back the urge to hiss out a curse a third option became apparent. Bracing both hands on Lex’s shoulder he, carefully as he could, rolled the other ‘Desh back onto his back and then over onto his opposite side. 

“Mm?” Lex’s hummed, off cadence and sleepy. 

“Go back to sleep.” Sezar murmured, slipping back down against the sheets. Except this time he slipped one leg between Lex’s hooking his heel around the other man’s.

“What y'doin’?” Lex murmured, head lifting from the pillows now that his space was being invaded.

“Hate to be the one to break this to you;” Sezar began, arms lacing around Lex’s middle to take hold of his wrists. “But you’re terrible in bed.”

“Tch..what?” More awake now Lex tried to shift, only to find that his movements were lightly restricted with the tangle of limbs he was now secured in. He laid there for a moment trying to work out just what was going on before he dropped his head back to the pillows. “Are you… tactical spoonin’ me?”

“Yes.”

Sezar pressed his face into the back of Lex’s head, nuzzling his nose into the other man’s hair. With Lex’s back pressed against his chest he felt the laugh that rumbled in the red head’s chest before the sound ever caught up with it.

“Did I kick ya or somethin’?”

“Like four times.” He pressed a fleeting kiss to the back of Lex’s head when he made an apologetic sound. “Go back to sleep.”


	5. Chapter 5

I.  
They stood just beyond the stairwell in the offices. The meandering path of their conversation was becoming a little more pointed. Their voices lowered, the words teased one another, and Sezar did his best to control the heat and smiles threatening to creep along his features.

 

“I’m following you like a lost dog.” Lex said in Mordescu, his accent far different from Sezar’s but it made the words sound so pointed and cool. 

 

‘I would kiss you,’ Sezar thought, ‘If you wished it of me’. He didn’t say this, instead from behind a hidden smile he teased back. “Is that why you keep going to the gutter?”

 

Lex drew back in faint shock and incredulity. “You hold the leash, I can’t help where you lead me.”

 

Sezar bit back a laugh. ‘Please wish it of me’.

 

II.

 

It should have been easier after the first time. The invitation was there, there was no need for apprehension. But it was improper in public, and he did not know how or if it was even something others should know.

Even when Lex, laying on the outcrop of wall near the bar, reached a hand down for Sezar’s. Even when no one turned an eye to them when Sezar curled his fingers around Lex’s. It would have been so easy to bring to bring that hand to his lips and press a small, adoring kiss to the knuckles.

Sezar held it where it was. He fought the urge to hide.

 

 

III.

 

Lex did not sleep well. If he was not tossing and turning, he sometimes slipped from bed and wandered the house and the yard. During the day, if things were quiet and slow, Lex would stretch out on the couch and nap.

Sezar found him there fairly often, half contorted half sprawled like a rag doll. His voice box making the gentle, sweet hum that indicated he was finally asleep and not just resting his eyes. Those times he’d be struck by how happy it made him that Lex would stay there at all, that he was comfortable enough in Sezar’s space to let his guard down and rest.

 

Sometimes the urge would creep into him to lean down and kiss his forehead. 

Usually, he let Lex sleep undisturbed.

 

IV.

 

It was so easy to laugh with these people. Their joy and humor was genuine. It was needed. They didn’t shun their quiet and often illusive Mordesh coworkers. Lex made it easier, he fit comfortably in the middle. Open and personable. They say beside one another, as one of their coworkers spun an ever elaborating tale.

 

Sezar brought his hand up to hide his smile. When Lex saw this he reached out to gently pull Sezar’s hand back down. It was not a gesture Sezar was comfortable with yet, but the corner of Lex’s eyes crinkled in the corners with a smile.

 

Every time he did it, Sezar remembered the reason why. He was too beautiful to hide it.

 

He should have leaned forward to kiss him then, to thank him. Someone said something, and Lex turned back to the others to respond in turn and another wave of easy laughter came. 

Sezar smiled and curled his fingers against the table.

 

V.

 

Did people know about them? 

 

The pretense was there to kiss him in front of the others. The Faire offered ridiculous reasons for all manner of things. A kissing booth was a good an excuse as any. ‘It’s for the Nik,’ Lex said, gesturing to the Veggie Radish that waved from the counter top. ‘Not me,’

 

Sezar had slipped around behind the booth when the crowds were low. Even that had taken a level of daring he was not accustomed to. He gripped the front of Lex’s jacket to keep his hands from shooting up to hide his features.

 

‘I didn’t come here for a Radish.’ He murmured. Lex breathed out and lifted his own hands to remove his mask. A gesture that Sezar found unimaginably intimate that doing so, so close to public made the apprehension arc along his nerves for Lex.

 

He didn’t manage it, an onlooker appeared at the counter and Sezar nudged him back.

 

‘Later,’ He told the gunslinger, ‘You have customers’.

 

He was still too scared. Of what, he couldn’t say.

 

 

VI.

 

They stood side by side, staring out the protective windows of the Norion. As they spoke, their hands curled in one another’s. Fingers lacing together effortlessly with the now comforting familiarity. They’d lost their jobs, their work spaces, much of which had become familiar to them. The change made Sezar uneasy. His life had become a series of losses, one after another. Each time it brought back the gnawing feeling in the pit of his stomach.

 

He looked over to Lex. His closest friend, his companion. Still there. Sezar squeezed his hand, comforted by the gentle return of the gesture. He loved him.

 

The others milled about, walked by and through the lab their voices carrying through the ship halls with excitement. Sezar glanced back towards the door to watch them, knowing that there wouldn’t be a moment of complete privacy and quiet.

 

Then he looked back to Lex; just as apprehensive and nervous about change as he was. 

Sezar leaned towards him and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek. Someone spoke in the doorway behind them, not interested in the two Mordesh in their own little bubble of quiet. Lex’s tanks brightened with blush, he turned to press the cool surface of his mask to Sezar’s cheek. 

 

And that was it. Simple, comforting, constant. No one mocked, no one drew attention to them. Why would they?

 

Some change was good.


	6. Chapter 6

“I don’t understand how you do it.” Sezar finally said, face still contorted in a scowl as he sat cross legged in the dirt. Lex’s fingers paused from working the space between Sezar’s shoulders. “How does it not eat at you?”

Lex looked out across the mix match of tended and wild garden that covered the space behind Sezar’s home. After a brief moment of silent contemplation he shrugged. “I just don’t let it.”

“Would that it be so simple.” Sezar muttered, sitting up and leaning back against the bench and settling between Lex’s knees. Hands moved from his back to the shaved sides of his head and rubbed at his temples.

“Just because it’s simple don’t make it easy.” Lex grinned as Sezar tipped his head back, mouth twisting in an unhappy scowl. “You gotta just pick people to not give a shit about. When you don’t give a shit, you don’t get hung up on what they might think about you.”

“Seems cruel.” Sezar’s expression softened.

“People’re cruel.” Lex shrugged. Sezar sat quietly, staring, as if waiting for some additional information to be bestowed on him. Lex’s shoulders sagged a bit. With a soft, static like sigh he looked away in thought. “You think it’s cruel to defend yourself if someone attacks you?”

“No, of course not.”

“It’s like that.” Lex bobbed his head in a nod. “Not giving a shit about 'em is like keepin’ your guard up in case someone wants to start something. Way less stressful though.”

Sezar tipped his head back to rights, eyes scanning the horizon. “Could do with less stess.”

“Keep telling you that.” Lex leaned down, pressing the surface of his mask to the shaved side of Sezar’s head. “It’s hard at first but it get’s easier the more you do it. Just like anything else.”

Sezar nodded, lips pursing in quiet thought before he drew in a steadying breath. “Fuck 'em.”

“Right?”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> darktypes asked:
> 
> Lex tries to coax Sezar into a dance, waltzing him around the room before he pulls the doctor into a dip directly under the conveniently placed mistletoe. "Well ain't this a surprise?"

“Come on, you promised.” Lex grinned, the hold he had on Sezar was light but insistent. Enough to pull Sezar through the tiny moments of apprehension, “You said you wanted to dance, so let’s dance.”

“I know, I just.” Sezar’s face was nearly pink, breathing shallow and nervous. “People.” Was all he managed to murmur out as Lex pulled him close, slipping one arm around the doctor’s slim waist.

“Don’t pay them any attention, love.” Lex replied back in Mordescu, voice dipping low and private. “It’s just us right now. Now come on, I didn’t practice for nothin’.”

Sezar slipped into the familiar space of Lex’s arms. The music wasn’t familiar but the steps were. Lex lead them with slow steps at first, coaxing Sezar out of his usual nervous state. No one else, no other people. He could ignore them, ignore the creeping feelings something would go wrong.

He could watch Lex; bright eyes lidded, a smile plastered on his face, confident, cool. Everything Sezar loved about him, everything he wanted to be like. Familiar. Safe. And despite everything he could feel normal again, he could dance with the person he loved again.

He moved to press close to Lex, and as if that was some cue he’d not been aware of the gunslinger dipped him back. He’d realize later he didn’t even feel startled by the gesture, he didn’t even cling in case they should slip and fall into a heap on the floor.

Lex’s grin turned cheeky, brows waggling; “Well, ain’t that a surprise?”

Sezar stared, unsure what he meant only to glance past him at the spray of mistletoe hanging above them. His nose wrinkled, face scrunching unable to stop the laugh that bubbled up from him.

“You goof.”

Lex slipped a hand up to remove his mask and closed the last bit of space between the two. They lingered, to Sezar it felt like forever before Lex eased him back up. Sezar pressed himself back into Lex’s arms, curling his own around Lex’s shoulders.

For a long time Sezar wanted to go back to feeling how he use to. He wanted things to be like they were back home, but it was little moments like these. They didn’t feel like home.

They felt Better.


	8. Chapter 8

Over the holiday without clients or much need to go out Sezar let the snow pile up outside. This had been a mistake he realized, shovel in hand after having cleared a small portion from the front steps. In a wide semi circle around him Biggie had tromped his way through the snow, vanishing up to the tips of his head before leaping into another swatch of unbroken white.

“I’m glad you’re having fun.” Sezar muttered to the dog, mouth twisting at the muffled ‘bah’ he received in return. “You’d think they’d have droids that could do this sort of thing by now.” He mused as the front door opened behind him.

“Holy shit.” Lex announced, voice box emulating an astounded whistle. “It really came down last night didn’t it?”

Sezar hummed, head inclining somewhat. “I’ll need to clear most of it out before—“

 

All at once Lex darted down the steps, dipping low to scoop his arms under Sezar’s knees to lift the spindly doctor up off his feet.

“Whu–!?”

The momentum carried through the movement as Lex managed to lift Sezar temporarily into his arms, bridal style and turned on his heel with a spin. 

“Lex NO!”

It lasted all of a few seconds before the two went tipping back and tumbled into the still deep snow. Sezar stared up at the sky, briefly obscured by snow and Biggie’s curious snout poking down to sniff at the fallen Mordesh. Beneath him Lex rumbled with barely contained laughter.

“What is wrong with you?” Sezar asked, voice deadpan.

Lex’s laughter grew louder. Biggie stomped his way through the snow to perch atop Sezar’s chest.

“That was unnecessary.”

“That was completely necessary.” He could hear the grin in Lex’s voice.

Drawing himself up, Sezar huffed and looked back down at the younger Mordesh. Lex laid half obscured by snow and the hood of his jacket, beaming happily back at him. Sezar studied him a moment, then lofted a massive handful of snow and chunked it into the hole created by Lex’s head. The bright orange glow from Lex’s tanks still managed to shine through beneath it.

“So was that.” Sezar smiled.


	9. Chapter 9

I.

The first time Sezar cried around Lex, he barely said a word. One of the benefits to not shedding tears was that if one kept their face stoney enough, no one would notice. Except, somehow, Lex did and twinning his fingers with Sezar’s his own expressionate eyes filled with concern all he had to do was ask;

“You okay?”

Whatever walls Sezar had managed to build up before fell easily and the only thing he managed to say was a soft, broken, “no” before Lex’s arms moved to slip around him and draw him closer.

The first time he didn’t have to say more than that.

II.

There were many things that needed to be fixed, and too many people not wanting them fixed. Too many threats, too many chances for failure, too many people involved that could get hurt. It had spiraled out far bigger than Sezar had thought, turned far more dire than he could have ever imagined and there he was pulled into himself trying to swallow fearful sobs as Lex sat across from him.

“You’re making yourself sick, you don’t need to do this.”

Between the hiccups and the gasps for breath Sezar tried to choke out the words; “They’re counting on me. It’s all on me and I don’t know what to do.”

“Then stop.” Lex spoke gently, his hands taking Sezar’s. “You don’t have to do this all on your own.”

“It’ll be my fault.” Sezar whimpered.

Lex managed to quiet him, his hands running steadily along Sezar’s back. He was quiet, but they both know he didn’t quite believe how earnestly Lex insisted to the otherwise.

III.

There wasn’t so much sobs, but a deep sort of unhappiness that hung on his words and he explained. At times he stopped himself, huffing out a bitter laugh all too ashamed of his own reaction to even feel comfortable explaining himself to Lex.

“He was delirious after all from the injury but those were the first words out of his mouth.” Sezar’s brows pinched, mouth twisting in a pained smile. “Wow,” He repeated. “You’re an ugly one.”

Lex’s own brows lowered, fingers curling into a fist against Sezar’s side. He was ready to deny it, ready to put as many reaffirmations to the contrary in Sezar’s mind as he could but before he could speak Sezar breathed out a shaky sigh.

“Do they think I don’t realize that?”

IV.  
Sometimes it wasn’t a good time for either of them. Sezar slipped from the bed, bare feet moving quietly through the house. He half expected to find Lex curled up on the couch. When he did not turn up there the next reasonable place was outside.

There was an old wooden bench in the side garden, surrounded by flowers that hadn’t yet bloomed. Lex was easy to spot, glowing gently in the otherwise pitch black night.

“Do you mind if I sit with you?” He asked, regretting the words the moment Lex gave a somewhat startled jolt.

The younger Mordesh stared up at him with the same weary, sleepless gaze. His voice box gave a soft crackle before he answered,

“You too huh?”

Sometimes the most they could manage was leaning against the other, hoping the other’s storms would pass.

V.

Wounds heal so slowly it’s not uncommon to realize they’d gone until much later. Sezar sat curled on the couch, Lex resting his face against his chest. The house was quiet and calm. As his fingers combed through Lex’s hair that realization followed others. This was safe. This was comfortable. This was familiar. And with that the realization of missing aches, of forgotten cuts and pains.

Lex lifted his head when Sezar drew in a shaking breath, “What’s wrong?”

Once more words did not want to come easily, at first all he managed was a shake of his head. Then, sniffling despite a smile he answered;

“I’m happy.”


End file.
